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RM: Let's talk a little bit about your mom's side of the family. Where was she from?

JY: Well, the mom's side I didn't know quite as well. She was so young, she must have been in her thirties when I was born, but she died in 1949 when she was about fifty-seven.

RM: What was your mom's name?

JY: Chin, C-H-I-N, Shee, S-H, double-E, that's her maiden name.

RM: And do you know how she came to immigrate to the U.S.?

JY: No, probably the same way as my dad.

RM: Do you know what year she came?

JY: No.

KL: Did she come to be married?

JY: No, she came to... well, I'm sure they expected her to be married an all that, got some money out of it, the family. That's the way Chinese people were in those days. Can you imagine being thirty-five years apart from my dad and being outlived by my dad by five years? In fact, I asked my dad to live with me, and he said, "No, I'll go with the older brother," which is fine. Went to live with him.

KL: But your dad didn't bring her over?

JY: No, had nothing to do with it. Didn't even know them.

RM: So did they meet in San Francisco?

JY: Well, it was like a picture bride, not even the picture, sight unseen. [Laughs] Just bought her.

RM: Did he ever, or she ever talk to you about what their relationship was like?

JY: No, she never said much about that. She was so busy raising seven kids. I told you my sister was the one that really took care of me, took me everywhere and taught me things, my sister Dora, she was five years older.

RM: Did your parents have any siblings?

JY: My father had, but he never talked much about them. In fact, he never went back to China again after he came here, never returned. Most of them returned.

RM: What about your mom? Did she ever talk about having siblings?

JY: Well, she must have, in San Francisco, but she never went back and visited them after she got married and came down here.

RM: Do you know what her family did in San Francisco?

JY: No, I don't. She was probably manual labor or working in a restaurant.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2015 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.